An Endless Cycle
In the 2024 elections, when challenging an incumbent, the incumbent was referred to as a career politician. It was time for new blood, which we all can agree on. So I ask those who beat an incumbent, after using the career politician attack, how long are you going to serve? I ask this question and not one would give me an answer. They will become the next career politician.
Fact checking is another term that we heard. We all wondered about the facts in the previous election, but in 2024 we have addressed it. What I take from this is that politicians are just like lawyers. In the O.J. Simpson trial a lawyer prior to the start stated the only thing you are going to hear is who can lie the best. Politicians are no different when it comes to running for office or for re-election.
Yes, the elections are over, but running for office has already started. It’s an endless cycle.
Steven Hunnicutt
Eugene
We Need Better Transportation Options
We recently attended Mt. Pisgah Arboretum’s annual Mushroom Festival and were delighted by the enthusiastic crowds.
Unfortunately, we were also shocked by how many private gas-burning vehicles were used to get there. The regular multi-tier lot was packed, so was the first overflow lot, along with lots 3 and 4. We were sent on to lot 5 by our counting, about half a mile from the venue. The two small shuttle buses were full. It wasn’t the walk that bothered us but the sheer number of trucks, vans and cars, including our own, polluting this natural wonder.
Why couldn’t the organization partner with the cities of Eugene and Springfield to make use of a few of their giant empty electric buses, which, on Sunday, could load and unload at LCC or at a nearby supermarket. Will we ever learn to cut across jurisdictions and work together as one community? What would ever happen in a catastrophic fire, gas line break, massive chemical derailment, drought, flood, volcanic eruption or blackout?
Jack Cooper
Eugene
A Vote for Outdoor Learning Space
Our school is a finalist to receive a SELCO grant to transform our new school site to create an outdoor learning space. This will be the start of restoring vital cultural connections that our school community lost during two recent relocations, and recently the move from the North region to the South region.
This garden project will immerse students in nature and Japanese customs, exploring how the outdoors and seasons shape traditions. By engaging in hands-on sustainability and food cultivation lessons, students will develop a deeper appreciation for their immersion experience. Additionally, the completed traditional Japanese-style garden will be open to the public after regular school hours. The final projects are chosen by popular vote, so please consider visiting Selco.org/vote/ to cast your vote!
Scott Klein
Counselor, Yujin Gakuen Japanese Immersion Elementary School
Eugene
The UO’s Farcical Proceedings
Your article on Green Party candidate Justin Filip (“Getting the Green Out,” EW, 10/24) noted that he was fired by the University of Oregon for protesting its investment policies in relation to Gaza. I was Filip’s legal advisor and can attest to both the farcical nature of the proceedings and their shameful outcome as a blatant violation of free speech.
Filip’s alleged sin was posting several brief remarks in the “comments” section of several out-of-the-way Facebook pages. They would have gone unnoticed were it not that some members of the administration were already upset about his political activism. Within two days of the postings, Filip was formally notified that he had been terminated. He was then given the right to a “hearing” — until then, I thought it was only in Alice in Wonderland that you had the verdict first and the trial afterward! The “hearing” was equally surreal. The administrator in charge was someone with no legal background at all, so he was suitably bewildered by mention of “due process” and “freedom of speech,” and at one point asked me to provide him with copies of the policies in question.
I found this especially dispiriting as someone who worked to sustain a spirit of dialogue last spring at a time when other campuses had turned to conflict. The UO administration is quoted as saying that it followed its “standard process regarding dismissal of an employee.” This is utter nonsense. More importantly, it is contrary to the spirit of public dialogue and mutual respect that has characterized the university.
Cheyney Ryan
Eugene
Christmas Postal Widow
I am officially outing myself as a “postal widow.” My husband originally started working for the U.S. Post Office because of the health insurance. I have Type 1 diabetes and its side effects, and generalized anxiety disorder, plus OCD and autism. Without the insurance, I would have died. My husband loves me very much so he made that sacrifice.
We have received many blessings over the years. We are white, cis gendered and come from middle class backgrounds. We were lucky enough to have been born into Generation X so we got our worthless degrees from the University of Oregon before it became a crippling burden. And we have kind family members.
However, I have spent the last 30 years alone at Christmas. I cannot see my husband during the holiday season. He is exhausted and falls asleep over his food, while I watch Christmas movies without him. Why? Because he is delivering your Amazon packages! I would beg you, Eugene south side residents, to get in your cars and go buy your dog food and kitty litter. My husband is 59 years old. His body is breaking down. We are holding out until retirement when we will trade in our current insurance for Medicare. We just have to hold on.
You could help, however, by patronizing local Black, Latino or women-owned businesses or from those who live under the rainbow flag. Go to Holiday Market, go to Tsunami or Smith Family Bookstore, go to an art gallery. Don’t go on Amazon or Temu. You are liberal and affluent, south side. You work, but not like my husband. Get in your car. It isn’t hard. If you are not disabled it is quite easy to find a local place to shop. Please, think of him before you buy.
Kristin Geuy-Boggs
Eugene
Still Waiting, A Year Later
Why support a Public Health Development Standard Overlay into land use planning?
These types of zones are designed to ensure that future land development projects promote a healthy environment and improved quality of life for all neighborhoods.
Eugene was the first Oregon city in 2017 to adopt a land use standard with these goals stated as a primary purpose for the Clear Lake Road Overlay Zone.
This zone was adopted “as a means to ensure future development fulfills the community’s desired outcomes for economic prosperity, and increased employment opportunities, while addressing environmental justice concerns, supporting policies that call for fairness and equity in achieving a healthy environment, vibrant community, and improved quality of life for surrounding neighborhoods.”
Most large polluters in Eugene are located in or near West Eugene neighborhoods.
Another new “Standard” can also protect West Eugene neighborhoods by banning the most toxic potential land uses, creating buffer zones between industrial facilities and residential, park and school zones and building requirements into city code that requires an equity analysis and a health risk analysis.
In October 2023, the Eugene City Council unanimously directed staff to develop public health development standards to protect public health based on the previous negative experiences of the community with J H Baxter that contaminated nearby homes with dioxins. When approved, the staff stated a goal of presenting a policy to the council in the summer of 2024.
One year later we are still waiting for this new standard to become reality.
Robin Bloomgarden
Eugene
Left Coast to Canada
Because of the unbelievable willful ignorance of a majority of the electorate, Donald Trump has been returned to the Presidency. This most dangerous event will steer the course of this nation in ways that will set us back a hundred years. What lies ahead is a risky and unstable future for the United States that should prompt the states of California, Oregon and Washington to seriously consider seceding from the union and joining Canada to become the world’s third largest economy as a country that values freedom over oppression, calm over chaos and reason over insanity.
Lou Wentz
Eugene
A Distant Hope
It is my fervent wish that the second presidential administration of Donald Trump will serve as a successful vaccination against autocracy for America in a way that his first did not.